Elections or not elections – THAT’s the question

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If the government is already changing its members, in a temporary fashion, due to election-preparations, why not just call for general elections straight away?

Felipe González, a grand old man of the Spanish PSOE labour party, said that to his party it would really be an advantage to have election as soon as possible (say this fall – taking the full advantage of positive seasonal variations in the labour market due to summer tourism). But, he said, to Spain as a nation, it would be best to stand the period out (read: have the elections in March 2012, at the end of the mandate).

The opposition, mainly PP (the centre-right Popular Party), lead by Mariano Rajoy, is strong in its message that it wants elections now, claiming the government has failed too much and should throw in the towel.

In its “process” to select a leading candidate for the upcoming elections to parliament, the governing party, PSOE, in a quite undemocratic fashion, literally squeezing out the only rival (Carme Chacón, currently Minister of Defense), has chosen Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba. Called Rubalcaba amongst the public, fellow politicians and the media. Or just Alfredo as he wants to call himself in a hysterically comical PR-move to get a particular image.

Rubalcaba is currently Minister of Interior and Vice-President of the Government (=vice prime-minister), so he has announced that he will resign from his government posts as a consequence of his new role. Together with him, we are likely to see other members of government (Rubalcaba faithfuls?) going out, followed by a serious government reshuffle.

Now, that’s when I say: Yes. Now it’s OK. Now it is actually justified to call for elections. Why shall the country have a new government, destined to be in charge for just some months, a little over half a year, and with a current leader, José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero, that already has half his body outside his office, with little motivation to pull on new initiatives, since the new candidate will be starting his campaign to promote his own little differences? (Actually, the guy claims he has the solution to the crisis in Spain…. So, why didn’t he work for these solutions when he was in the political team leading the nation?